Heritage Lottery Fund

Usability testing to help create a roadmap for continuous improvement

Not all Numiko projects involve design and development. We also have a team of user researchers and strategists who enjoy getting to the heart of user need and helping shape our clients’ digital strategies; delivering pragmatic, actionable recommendations for change.

Being a member of the family of lottery funding distributors, Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) were impressed by our work with National Lottery Promotions Unit and commissioned us to conduct a review and user testing of a site they’d recently launched. The agency responsible for the design and build had carried out some user testing as part of the project, but HLF now wanted to appeal to a slightly broader audience, so they commissioned Numiko to assess the site’s efficacy in a number of areas.

As well as identifying specific usability issues, we needed to understand whether the site was effectively exposing the diversity of HLF-funded projects and demonstrating the value of heritage investment to Lottery players. In the 20 years since its inception, HLF has invested over £6billion into 37,000 projects. Few of us live more than a stone’s through from somewhere that’s benefited from HLF funding – from public parks and cultural heritage projects to restored buildings and monuments. Was the site working hard enough to get this message across?

After carrying out an expert usability audit to assess the current situation, we used a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods to test the site structure, content efficacy, image use, mobile experience and search functions. Our online survey received hundreds of responses which enabled us to draw statistical conclusions to inform later rounds of face-to-face testing. We recorded these sessions to share with the digital team so they had access to the same level of detailed feedback as we did.

Our job was to synthesise data from our own analysis, online surveys and lab-based tests to draw balanced conclusions. Based on feedback that we’d received, we decided to go beyond our brief and begin to look at design recommendations, accessibility and typography to evaluate their impact on the overall user experience.

The project culminated in a presentation to stakeholders which summarised findings into an actionable set of short, medium and long term recommendations. We didn’t want to leave HLF with a monumental ‘snag list’ – we wanted to empower them to take control of their digital future by providing specific recommendations for change, which is precisely what we did.

“We engaged Numiko to help us ensure that our new website was meeting the needs of our users. They were a pleasure to work with and delivered a considered and thorough report with pragmatic and actionable recommendations.”
— Joanna Finn, Head of Publishing and Customer Information, Heritage Lottery Fund